Every year, nearly 1,00,000 Engineering graduates specialized in Electrical, Electronics and Communications fly out of the Engineering college campuses across India.

Most of these students opt for the Software jobs, because of bulk recruitment drives of IT services companies. They will be trained in software technologies for around 3 months and be put in multi-million, multi-client maintenance projects. Little do they reliase that the 4 years of Engineering education is a time/energy waste, and all it takes to be a Techie is 3 months of software training.
Some take up the challenge of getting into a Electronics design company, and go after it.
The hardware companies are very selective & recruit on the basis of rigorous procedures with one offer made for every 200 applications on an average (for software companies it’s 1 out of 20).
This article is for those students, who aspires to make a mark in the Electronics Design industry.
Here's valuable no-nonsense career advice about the exciting cutting-edge fields, and analysis of the market, the industry and career prospects.

What’s hot?

• Embedded Systems
• VLSI Design
• Digital Signal Processing

1. Embedded Systems: Your life is embedded
1.1 Introduction
The embedded system is a combination of computer hardware, software and perhaps additional mechanical or other parts, designed to perform a specific function within a given time frame. The embedded software is required for all real-time applications and is developed using a real time operating system (RTOS), as it helps to schedule and execute tasks based on priority in a predictable manner. To cite just a few examples, embedded software allows your washing machine to choose speed according to the type of cloth, gives thinking power to the microwave and pushes rocket launchers into space.
Industry analysts estimate that over 54 per cent of future software development will be in the embedded technology space. According to an IDC report the international market as a whole expects product development worth $75 billion, which will require as many as 150,000 trained professionals in embedded systems development by the year 2005.

1.2 Embedded systems - Definition:
The embedded system (or device) is defined as a specialized or dedicated computer used to control devices (such as automobiles, home and office appliances, handheld units of all kinds, etc.) where the operating system and application functions are often combined in the same program. An embedded system implies a fixed set of functions programmed into a non-volatile memory (ROM, flash memory, etc.) in contrast to a general-purpose computing machine. However, sometimes single board computers and rack-mounted computers are called “embedded computers” if used to control a terminal interface, machine, motor, etc. An embedded device or system may contain more than one operating system and/or processors (microprocessor, microcontroller, etc.). Specifically excluded from this definition are all types of enterprise computing machines deployed as general-purpose computers (e.g., desktop PCs, standard laptop PCs, enterprise servers, etc.).

The definition of embedded system/device is intended to give a reasonable indication of the potential operating system and run-time software royalty opportunity within the embedded systems market.

1.3 Indian Scenario
The subcontracting of embedded software development to Indian companies has been prevalent for more than a decade now. However, the new trend in the last five years is the setting up of subsidiaries in India by multinational OEMs such as Delphi, LG, Samsung, GE and Philips in the automobile, wireless and medical equipment sectors. Embedded systems market, which is one of the key drivers of Indian R&D off shoring and is currently pegged at around US$ 25 billion globally, growing at a 16% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).A NASSCOM-Mckinsey study states that the domestic embedded systems market for India is geared to generate U.S. $9.5 billion and exports worth U.S. $ 10 billion by the year 2008. This is, however, just a minuscule portion of the global market of the $25 billion opportunity that is waiting to be tapped.

1.4 Employment
The embedded software has immense scope for those choosing a career in this line due to its wide application and because the technology companies have to increase their range of products for survival. As a result, software companies and the telecommunication and electronics industries are heavily diversifying into it. You may begin your career as:

• Embedded Hardware Engineer- responsible for hardware platform and module prototyping, debugging & testing. Also ensure compliance with standards and with product specifications and initiate design changes as necessary.
• Embedded Systems Programmer- responsible for analysis and optimization of embedded software for the targeted RTOS. Tasks include developing installable and built-in device drivers, kernel modifications & embedded application.
• Wireless Protocol Engineer- responsible for development, integration and testing of various protocols within an embedded firmware stack used in mobile devices.

1.5 Entry Requirements
The required skills for being an Embedded System Developer are:

• C & Assembly language programming
• Devices like RISC processor or 8051
• Embedded Communication Systems (Protocols suites)
• Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS)
• Computer Organization
• Digital and analog design techniques

Application Segments

• Automotive
• Consumer Electronics
• Industrial Automation
• Medical Devices
• Mobile Phones
• Military and Aerospace
• Office/Business Automation
• Retail Automation
• Telecom/Datacom

This report provides important metrics describing the growth of the embedded systems industry and specifically includes statistics on the number of embedded developers, annual shipments of embedded systems/devices, and the annual number of embedded development project starts. The analysis of these metrics reveals trends and opportunities that will directly impact embedded solution providers and assist in formulating effective product market and account development strategies.

The total number of worldwide embedded software and hardware developers will continue to grow over the forecast period. The population of software developers will increase at a faster rate than this total population, as software development continues to represent a growing portion of embedded device development cost.

1.7 Statistics on Embedded Systems/Devices:
This report estimates that worldwide unit shipments of embedded devices were significantly over 4 billion in 2006 and the embedded unit shipment growth to continue to be driven by increased shipments in high-volume industries such as consumer electronics and others. The report further estimates that in 2006 less than half of worldwide unit shipments of embedded devices used a commercial operating system or open source operating system as their primary operating system. End-user survey data indicates that over 10% of embedded systems projects currently are designed to use more than one operating system.